Using Surveys in Healthcare Accreditation

Healthcare surveys can be some of your most effective tools in the healthcare accreditation process. In fact, they are sometimes required. We have made compliance with these regulations as simple as possible by offering expert-certified healthcare survey templates for everyone, from dental offices to hospitals. Use these healthcare accreditation resources to gather the data you need to acquire or maintain your certifications.

We make it easy create and send surveys to your patients. Start with templates written by healthcare experts at CAHPS® and AHRQ®, or create custom surveys from scratch. We also offer powerful analytics and downloadable presentations that help get actionable results.

Surveys and questionnaires are crucial because they let accrediting organizations hear directly from your patients about the cleanliness of your facilities, the clarity of your communication, and the overall quality of your care, among other variables. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) can require you to use these healthcare accreditation surveys in order to become an accredited Medicare provider–and other accrediting agencies can mandate their compliance, too.

Federally Designed Templates

Sample AHRQ, CAHPS and HCAHPS surveys are specially designed to help you comply with federal accreditation requirements. These questionnaires were created by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) in the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS). CAHPS survey examples help you gather patient feedback, and AHRQ surveys focus on input from healthcare staff and workers themselves.

These online polls can reveal discrepancies in perception and practice that might affect your accreditation. For example, CAHPS surveys let your patients tell you whether your new goals about starting physician and nurse appointments on time are working.

Our research shows that while 8 in 10 senior healthcare officials say their health facility’s appointments usually start on time, only 52% of polled patients who had recently visited a doctor said their meeting began when scheduled. And AHRQ patient safety culture surveys can give hospital employees a chance to report negligence anonymously. Find these problems quickly to keep your patients safe and your reputation high.

Benchmarking With DHHS Surveys

Because so many hospitals and clinics use the same sample surveys, they let accrediting agencies–and you–compare your results to the aggregated data of others in your region or across the country. You can learn more about how these surveys can help you stay accredited here.

HIPAA Compliance

At SurveyMonkey, we understand patients’ concerns about the privacy of their health information. These worries might make it difficult to use surveys effectively in your practice. But the good news for medical professionals is that patients who understand how their data is protected are more comfortable participating in health surveys.

We know because in November 2013 we surveyed over 300 Americans about their views of online privacy. We found that of those who were familiar with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA), the majority said laws like it improve the privacy and safety of personal information. When patients know you’re meeting the standards of the law, they trust you to protect them.

Increased Security

We make it easy for you to maintain total HIPAA compliance and to keep your patients’ private data secure–and their fears at bay. Any eligible medical practice on a certain paid plan can enter into a HIPAA-compliant Business Associate Agreement (BAA) with us at no extra cost.

When you do, we can turn on a series of enhanced security measures for any questionnaires that collect protected health information (generally, health-related data that can be linked to a specific person’s name or other identifier). Those measures include alerts when users encounter questions about HIPAA-protected data, and activity logs to ensure only the proper authorities can access survey responses.

Unique BAAs

Some hospital accreditations and other certifications require special changes to our standard BAA. If that is you, we are happy to negotiate a BAA that meets your specific needs. All our BAAs comply with the HITECH Act and related DHHS regulations.